


Settling Down

by Willthefox93



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Coming of Age, F/F, F/M, Feels, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-06-13 06:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15358767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willthefox93/pseuds/Willthefox93
Summary: Five years ago, Bill left his hometown looking for a place where he'd belong.Now after many times of dodging the issue, he decided to open up and reveal his past to his friends...Meanwhile, a childhood friend has returned and is determinated to find him.Short story featuring two oc's of mine and a couple of friend's ocs





	1. A Heartful Bro Talk

**Author's Note:**

> The first Chapter of the story!
> 
> Originally posted on google drive and read by my discord pals, they kinda convinced me to publish it on Fanfiction.net and Tumblr. Then the story went on and I decided to upload it here, not before patching it up a little
> 
> Sonar the Fennec belongs to Archie / Sega; Skip & Jana belong to Doctor Stephen (check him out at docstephen.tumblr.com) and a huge thanks to FieraTheProud for test-reading this

**1 - A heartful bro talk**

The sky outside was darkening as a dark-haired fox was sitting in a table besides the windows. The place was looking fancy, even too much for a simple coffee shop but Bill somehow liked it. Maybe it was because of the lights not being really bright. Or maybe because of the chill music playing in the background. He knew, as a cool guy, that he'd be supposed to like other kind of stuff, but he still felt incredibly at home in the tranquil coffee shop.

The muffled sound of a door opening distracted him as the Fennec he was waiting for entered.

-"Sorry for the wait, I kinda had a busy day" - said the fennec. His fur was red with black stripes in the head and tail. He wasn't tall but neither short and had a skinny build. Besides from gloves and shoes, he didn't wear other clothes, like most of the male mobians.

-"It's okay, I already know"- answered the fox with a smug look. His fur was light orange with white segments. He had abundant black hair and his bangs almost entirely covered his left eye. He was a bit taller than the fennec and also slim, but you couldn't notice that as he was wearing a cyan baggy hoodie and black jeans.

-"What? How did you-?" asked the surprised fennec. He hadn’t told anyone about that day’s events.

-"Let's say an angery lil' bird told me about it"- Bill quickly answered with a mischievous small smile in his face. He couldn’t help feeling proud over his best friend’s achievement.

-"Friggin' Jana… Wait a minute I thought you hated each other's guts"- the fennec though aloud.

-"Skip please, we don't hate each other"- calmly said Bill. -"She's just violently trying to eliminate her competition"- he added with a chuckle. Jana was one of Skip’s childhood friends and her relationship with Bill was a little bit… rocky.

-"Are we already starting the gay jokes?"- wondered Skip with a slight tone of annoyance. He loved Bill as a bro but his jokes sometimes managed to get in his nerves.

-"Nah, I know my crush is only one-sided"- the fox answered with a faked sad tone. -"Sooooo… how did you date with that gal go?"- the fox added, quickly pointing to the reason he invited his bro.

+"Well, it was the greatest day ever"- Skip answered with a wide smile

...

-"I guess I'll have to stop with the gay jokes"- said Bill with a happy face after hearing Skip's detailed evening with Sonar.

-"Yup. Sorry for breaking your heart"- said Skip with a smug face.

-"It's not like my heart belongs to another person, you idiot"- quickly answered Bill.

-"Yeah right"-.

-"No, really"- answered the orange fox with no trace of his usual jokingly mood. -"It's a long story, from before I moved here"-.

-"Wait, really? No more jokes or teasing comments?"- asked Skip, still not believing it.

-"Shut up, and hear me, dumbass!"- Bill answered with annoyance. -"So… how much of my past do you know?"-.

-"Not much"- answered Skip. -"You said you come from far and that you left for the sake of leaving. You were also supposed to have a temporary stay here, but it seems you have settled down"- he added.

-"Well. I didn't have a place in my town. Like there was only a thing rooting me there but it left and I quickly did after"- explained Bill.

-"And what was keeping you there, then?"-.

-"The most precious person in the world"- said Bill while looking for something in his wallet. "Here" he added with a slight blush as he took out an old pic from the wallet and placed in the table. Skip looked at it with curiosity.

It was a fox carrying a rabbit in his back during cold night. The fox looked like Bill but his hair was longer and almost reached his shoulder. His bangs were longer and extended down to his muzzle, covering entirely his left eye. His eyes were grey instead of green and hid behind some thick glasses. He smiled while his cheeks slightly blushed. The rabbit he was carrying in his back also smiled but had a full-blown blush in her face. Her fur had a cream-like color and her reddish hair fell down until her hips, covering the sides of her face. She had honey-like eyes and also wore thick glasses.

-"Pretty cute… also is she wearing your hoodie?"- commented Skip looking at the pic.

-"Yes and No. That's the original hoodie. The one I wear every day is a second one I bought, just to remember her"- Bill explained.

-"OH MY GOD THAT'S SO CUUUUUTEE-"- Skip screamed before Bill kicked his shin under the table.

-"No need, to do that, you dick!"- Skip nagged with a pained expression.

-"Shut up. We were just friends"- Bill added with annoyance.

-"Yeah right, you totally look like those couples in anime"-.

-"Maybe because we both were huge weebs? And we weren't dating, we just hanged out together"- quickly said Bill. -"We… we only had each other in that shitty place"- he quietly said after a pause.

-"I thought you were popular. Everyone here likes you and you're the coolest guy around"- answered Skip. He was still puzzled as it was the first time Bill openly talked about his past.

-"Nah. I don't know why people here like, but back there, I didn't have much friends. Mainly just Tina"- he explained -"We were friends since school and grew together. We were also quite antisocial so whenever there was a party and we were forced to attend we just waited until the other showed up and then leave to watch anime at her place"-.

-"Sounds like you were a close couple"- commented Skip.

-"We were not a couple"- dismissed Bill with quickness. -"I'm not worthy of being with someone as great as her"-.

-"You're worthy of dating anyone you fucking want, bro!"- snapped Skip. His bro wasn't like this normally and he was getting worried.

-"Anyways. She got an invitation for a prestigious college in the North. You know those cold wood-surrounded towns?"-.

-"Yeah, that's really far away… and she accepted?"-.

-"Yeah. She had a really promising future. But she had her doubts, so I convinced her to leave"-. Bill looked troubled. All traces of his normal joke mood were gone and in his place there was a melancholic fox that somehow managed to look like him.

-"And she just left like that?"- Skip asked looking at his friend. Dude could totally use a hug right now.

-"Nope. We went out for an entire day. Spent out our last day in a park and talked a lot about it. In the end she was still unsure."- Bill expression suddenly changed from troubled to annoyed. -"But the idiot HAD to do it"-.

-"What did she do?"- said Skip looking at him intensely. His bro has never been this open before and he was looking at his pal's inner feels, those that he hides behind jokes and "cool" attitude.

-"S-she… she kissed me"- he finally let out. -"That idiot kissed me and I started wanting her to stay. I didn't want her to leave"- he finally exploded as tears came out of his eyes.

-"But you told her to leave anyways…"-.

-"I had to do it. It was her future. My feelings don't matter at all"-.

-"Bro, don't say that"- Skip said worried. And then he went to Bill's side to hug him.

-"Anyways… Sorry for the drama. I just wanted to hear about your date"- he said calming down.

...

Somewhere else, in a faraway cabin in the edge of a forest a rabbit girl was lying in a bed. In her room there was a pic of a fox carrying a rabbit. The rabbit in the bed had shorter hair with bangs that covered the upper said of her left eyes. She took her glasses off and put them in the same table were the pic was. Her honey eyes were shining due to a lil' tear

-"You're really stubborn dude"- she said firmly to the fox in the pic. Then she looked at the packed bag in the room's floor.

-"Yeah. That's the first fucking thing I'm gonna say to him"- she thought as she hugged a cyan baggy hoodie that was obviously not her size.

 


	2. Her Missing Piece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... last chapter had Skip and Bill drinking some coffee as the later talked about his dearest person in the entire world.  
> And now, the plot starts moving!  
> Reviews, comments and suggestions are welcome as always, don't be shy please! And a huge thanks for @docstephen & @Fieratheproud for beta reading!

**Chapter 2: Her missing piece**

Snow fell as it always did in the small town. In the outskirts there was a simple, small, yet pretty cabin. The snow had started to pile on it, but the rabbit currently inside didn't care much. She was lying in a bed, her honey-like eyes half open and her reddish hair all messed up, as she had been sleeping for a while

The interior of the cabin was empty besides the bed and the rabbit on it, as the decorations that covered the wooden walls had been put into a travel bag. The only noticeable thing was a framed picture, with a fox carrying a rabbit in his back.

"That's the first time he smiled that much" thought the rabbit in loud voice -"I wonder how he is going… would he be smiling?"- wondered before giggling -"Yeah right as if Moody Billy would laugh or anything. Anyways, don't fear Edgy Boi, your cute girl is on the way!"- she said as she raised from her bed to finish the luggage

An hour later everything was ready. Tina was in the bathroom finishing her looks. Her -now styled- hair reached until her neck, covering the sides of her head while her bangs reached until the upper side of her eye

"To think that back then he was the one with the bangs… I do look good with them though" - noted the rabbit.

She put on her thick glasses and looked at the mirror. Smiled a bit as she found herself looking adorable. The hoodie she was wearing may have been one or two sizes too big, but she felt incredibly comfortable in it, so she didn't care

-"I guess it's a goodbye, right?"- she thought aloud as she looked at the cabin she had called home for 5 years. The wooden walls looked empty, the room looked so void, it was indeed a goodbye. She smiled as she knew that it was a new stage in her life

The trip to the train station was quick. The snowfall had weakened out making everything look like one of those movies. She booked her ticket and quickly took a seat the moment the train arrived

"I've been out for 5 years… a lot of stuff has changed, for sure. I mean, now I had a ton of knowledge I didn't have back then. I've matured… but still I feel like I've been lacking something" she thought as she looked through the window. It wasn't really hard to find what had she been missing. Back when she was a lil' kid, she had a friend that had always remained by her side. Well, until she left as he wasn't qualified to enter in the same college she got called to

"Oh Billy, I've really missed you a lot, you know?" she thought as the memories of her adventures with his friend came back to her mind. Like that time, they ditched the graduation party and went to the forest to stargaze. Or that time some thugs tried to assault them, and he drove them off. But the one that couldn’t stop thinking about was their farewell, 5 years ago

...

It was summer in their hometown and the heat was awful but despite feeling heavy and tired, they met up anyways. They both knew they didn’t have much time left and they weren’t going to waste it

-"So wanna ride the Roller Coaster?"- Bill asked quickly, his voice evidencing a bit of anxiety. It wasn't the first time they went together to that park, but this one had to be special.

-"Of course, dude!"- Tina answered. She was also feeling anxious as this was gonna be their last day together

There wasn't much of a row and they managed to enter the game quickly

-"Things are going good today. I mean we normally have to wait like half an hour to enter"- he noted, trying to start a conversation. Why was he struggling so much? They always talked for hours but now he can’t bring himself to say even 5 words?

-"Yeah… I hope we'll get in in every ride"- she automatically answered, her mind also distracted

A couple of minutes later they were already off, stretching their limbs after the wild ride

-"Wanna see our pics?"- Bill said in an out of character cheerfully voice. The fox and the rabbit rushed out to the picture stand. Their pic appeared quickly showing how exciting that ride was

-"You two look like a pretty lovely couple"- commented the clerk looking at the pic. Bill and Tina blushed a bit but tried to hide it

-"We are just friends, but thanks for the compliment"- he said as he paid for it.

The day went on as they were going from game to game. Tina beat the shit out of Bill in the bumper cars and his pride was obviously damaged. Pride that was recovered later in the Bowling lines as he won by merely 10 points

But then Tina defeated him once again in the Dancing games. He didn't get offended as he had always been a bad dancer. Things got even when he won in the basket game and so, they decide to settle the score with their favorite game: Air Hockey

The fox and the rabbit positioned themselves in the extremes of the table, and he quickly inserted a coin in the table’s slot. The table started purring as the game turned on, and the sound of plastic hitting metal announced the start of the game

-"Ready to get your booty kicked?"- she defied him from across the table

-"Yeah right, your pretty butt is the one getting kicked!"- he answered

-"My my, I did have the suspicion you had been checking me out"- she answered with a smug face, while casually shooting the first disc

-"Wait wha-"- he surprisedly exclaimed. He was too flustered to see the disc and the first point of the game went for Tina.

-"That's cheating, you know?!"- he complained angrily

-"It's all fair in war, you know?"- she answered with a grin

The game got intense. Their arms moved quickly from side to side making the disc go out flying in the opposite direction

And finally, with loud hit sound, the disc flew out of the table

-"Whoa, that was intense"- Bill said with a confident happy look

-"Yeah. This kind of things is why I love hanging out with you, dude"- Tina answered with a smile

-"Now, should we go somewhere else before someone starts asking questions?"- the fox suggested

-"If somebody ask, we never played Air Hockey"- she winked as she took Bill by his arm

 

…

 

The hours passed and the sun had started to set. The redheaded had been meaning to talk about something she wasn’t happy with, yet she knew she couldn’t keep avoiding the issue, no matter how much it would hurt her or Bill. She closed her eyes and sighed, gathering every tiny bit of willpower she had to

-"Dude… I don’t wanna go. I know it’s important for me but I wanna stay… maybe we could try something and…” - Tina let out with hesitation. The next she would leave the Town for college, for who knows how many years! She felt anxious and slightly scared

-"Tina, please. It's your future. You're gonna do great stuff. You'll be going places. This is a chance you can't reject"- the fox answered, his tone was serious. He knew it was hard for both, but he didn’t want her to reject a successful future because of him, he was not worth of it

-"But that means you'll be alone, for years! It means I’ll be alone too!"-. Tina sounded worried. She and Bill had always held each other up. Both of them weren’t exactly the most social folks around and she was afraid Bill would feel lonely. She was worried about herself, yet her mind worried more about him

-"I don't want you to give up your future for me"- he insisted. He always knew Tina was meant to be important. That kind of people that could eventually change the world, people that was useful to progress people unlike himself that was just a simple plain dude

-"But still…"- her voice cracked. Anxiety clouded her mind, and a sensation of fear grew on her. Why had things to be like this?

-"Look. You're a great person. And you have amazing skills. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine"- Bill smiled with confidence. He trusted in her and wanted to mask his own fears with hope.  Or at least he tried, He wasn't used to smiling and even when he knew how to fake a good smile, his friend knew him enough to see through his attempt.

-"Okay"- she said with a tone of defeat in her voice. He was too stubborn. He wouldn’t take a “No” for answer, even if it meant they would be alone and unable to see each other in years. She could her eyes getting warm.

Bill saw her face and recognized her gaze. She was going to cry. She had only cried like 5 times in the whole time they have known each other. He could feel his heart hurt as she fought to contain her tears. She came closer to him and he quickly hugged her. It felt so warm, her fur so soft. He didn't want her to leave but he knew he had to let her go. She raised her head and they looked at each other's eyes. Bill's grey eyes were trying to contain tears too. It is said that the eyes are the windows of the souls and Tina could see Bill’s real feelings on his eyes. Tina moved her head closer to the fox’s one. Her cheeks brushed against his. And her mind disconnected as her head turned slightly. Their eyes met each other for a second, and slowly their muzzles met too. 

Tina felt so overwhelmed! Her heart was filled with joy and sorrow as she knew this was the moment she had been waiting for ages, yet it happened in such a bad context. She slowly opened her eyes, and she saw the fox’s eyes finally letting out the tears. The rabbit smiled and patted his head, trying to comfort him

...

Tina looked at sky from the train's window. Five years have passed since that first kiss. She might have kissed any a variety of guys -and even gals- yet none had managed to catch her heart the way that kiss did. She could even think she was still fixated on Bill after all, she did left a part of herself back there. And she holds a part of his heart too. She was positive, this time nothing would be between her and the dude she loved

...

Not much later, she arrived at a familiar place. It was a small house made of wood, painted in an orange tone. The windows were closed, the lights were off and the yard looked  pretty unattended. The rabbit started to worry as whenever she started to look more into the place, the eerier it got

-"Dude? Are you there? I'm home!"- she asked as she entered the house. Her mood quickly worsened as she realized the house was abandoned. Bill wasn’t there anymore and haven’t been there in years.


End file.
